Russia and the United States may have declared themselves a critic of each other throughout history but if there is one field they develop friendly relations, it's astronomy.
The United States has been dependent on Russia to transport its astronauts (along with astronauts) to the International Space Station since NASA's funding is not enough to develop their commercial crew program.
Despite the United States not wanting to be dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, NASA director Jim Bridenstine wrote a letter to Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin requesting assistance due to the delay of American-hosted commercial space flights. The Russian director then ordered to start the development of two Soyuz spacecraft.
A HELPING HAND
According to an article published in the Russian news agency TASS, there will be two Soyuz spacecrafts in development. Rogozin explained that one of these spacecrafts will help NASA in transporting astronauts to the International Space Station while the other spacecraft will be used for the planned space tourist flight that is due in the year 2021. "I gave a command to Roscosmos yesterday to allocate extra funds to make two more Soyuz spaceships. The production capacities of our factory the Energia Space Rocket Corporation allow producing four spaceships a year but it is possible to produce five spacecraft," he explained.
Although the Russian space agency is happy to help, it did not stop them from criticizing the Americans for their seemingly poor planning. Russia has warned the United States to ask in advance in case their planned 2020 launch cannot push through.
Rogozin explained that the construction and the development of these Soyuz spacecrafts will take at least two years to complete and it will not make it to the 2020 deadline.
The United States, on the other hand, are optimistic about the possibilities of working with American corporations for the development of the commercial crew program. Companies like SpaceX and Boeing are determined to develop more technology for space travel with their planned Crew Dragon Trip in 2020 and the completion of the CST-100 Starliner, respectively.
THE RUSSIA–US SPACE RACE
Probably one of the most exciting aspects of Russia and the United Space being "frenemies" is their space race after the Cold War. Basically, the space race is a technological competition between the two countries to show which one is superior.
It all began when the then Soviet Union has successfully unleashed the satellite Sputnik 1 into space on October 1957. According to reports, the United States has been planning to launch their own artificial satellite and was surprised to see that the Soviet Union had done it first.
The Soviet Union then succeeded to launch Sputnik 2 with the dog Laika as its passenger. It was only in 1958 when the United States succeeded in launching their satellite which they called Explorer 1.
For the time being, the US and the Soviet Union kept their competition running. It was until recently under the Bush administration that the US and (now) Russia started their friendly relations and the former asking for help in transporting astronauts to the ISS.
However, this friendly trade alarmed some Americans because it seems NASA is becoming dependent on Russian spacecraft. Who can blame them? Although there was an increase in their budget in 2015, NASA is still not able to continue projects for their commercial space program.
